Spam drives us e-mad

Spam emails and electronic viruses have finally taken their toll on the office PC.

Computers are now taking more 'sick days' than the people who operate them, according to new research.

PCs crash for nine days every year, while the average worker notches up just seven sick days.

Reasearch by Yahoo! Mail from 2,500 UK email users found machines were forced into standby mode more often as they battled the daily deluge of spam and virus infections.

The spam-culture is in turn causing a new form of stress among workers called E-Mail Affective Distress or E-Mad, the researchers claim. We get so frustrated with being constantly bombarded with junk emails, including spam, scam, sleaze and viruses, that we are becoming irritable and snappy.

Other E-mad symptoms include twitchiness, feeling angry and increased worrying, according to the Centre for Stress Management. Nearly half of workers questioned said dealing with junk emails was more stressful than sitting in a traffic jam.

Spam is costing the UK economy £6.7 billion a year with two per cent of the average worker’s salary (£463 out of £20,000) wasted on spam fighting chores.